Data Collection
The research objects examined in this thesis are all academic publications such as journal articles or book chapters, but only if the articles claim to be written from the angle of ideological analysis or critique. The keywords ideological critique, ideological analysis, ideological criticism, critique of ideology, and analysis of ideology have been used to search the archives of academic publishing companies (e.g., Sage, Routledge, SwetsWise), the catalogue of the University of Sheffield Library, as well as Google Books and Google Scholar to collect related articles for this study. 37 articles whose ‘title’ precisely matched the above-listed keywords have been collected. From these potential samples, only 33 articles, whose content displayed the application of ideology-related concepts, were selected as the main analytical data.
Although there should be more scholars who deal with this topic without directly and clearly titling their articles with the keywords mentioned above, the decision was made for this thesis to only focus on these 33 pieces of data. This is because, as discussed in Chapter 2,
the research object of this thesis is academic scholars who decide to adopt the angle of ideological critique/analysis to investigate their research, or who display their research interests in ideology (as their articles’ titles have revealed). In so doing, it will meet the mission of this thesis: studying those who are the most likely persons to escape from the intervention of ideology (since ideology, to them, could be seen as a research object39
These 33 articles related to ideological critique/analysis are listed in Table 4-1. In this table, RA is the abbreviation for Research Articles, which are all followed with numbers to refer to certain articles, e.g., RA07, RA33. These ‘RA+number’ codes are applied to substitute for the original title of articles in later writing. Lastly, all 33 collected articles are stored on a disk attached as Appendix 1.
).
Table 4-1: List of Collected Research Articles and Their Reference
Research
Articles Reference
RA01 Moss, G. & O'Loughlin, B. (2005) New Labour's Information Age Policy Programme:
An Ideology Analysis, Journal of Political Ideologies, 10(2): 165-183.
RA02
Abbas, T. (2001). Media Capital and the Representation of South Asian Muslims in the British Press: An Ideological Analysis, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 21(2):
245-257.
RA03
Sakamoto, R. (2001). Dream of a Modern Subject: Maruyama Masao, Fukuzawa Yukichi, and 'Asia' as the Limit of Ideology Critique, Japanese Studies, 21(2):
137-153.
RA04
Bishop, R. (2001). Old Dogs, New Tricks? An Ideological Analysis of Thematic Shifts in Television Advertising for Diet Products, 1990-2000, Journal of Communication Inquiry, 25: 334-352.
RA05
Brennen, B. & Duffy, M. (2003). "If A Problem Cannot Be Solved, Enlarge It": An Ideological Critique of the "Other" in Pearl Harbor and September 11 New York Times Coverage, Journalism Studies, 4(1): 3-14.
RA06 Bishop, R. (2005). The Wayward Child: An Ideological Analysis of Sports Contract Holdout Coverage, Journalism Studies, 6(4): 445-459.
RA07 Hazelton, M. (1990). Medical Discourse on Contemporary Nurse Education: An Ideological Analysis, Journal of Sociology, 26(1): 107-125.
RA08 Crawford, K. (1998). The Construction of the National Curriculum: An Ideological and Political Analysis, Research Papers in Education, 13(3): 261-276.
RA09 Medvic, S. K. (2007). Old Democrats in New Clothing?: An Ideological Analysis of a Democratic Party Faction, Party Politics, 13(5):587-609.
RA10 Goss, B. M. (2005). "Jeffersonian Poetry": An Ideological Analysis of George F. Will's Editorials (2002–2004), Journalism Studies, 6(4):417-429.
RA11 Kerr, M. (1960). Rashid Rida and Islamic Legal Reform: An Ideological Analysis, The Muslim World, 50(2): 99-108.
39 Focusing on articles related to ideological critique, for this thesis, has a philosophical significance.
Any analysis or critique on X’s ideology is not to answer what exactly this X is. Instead, it is to understand how X’s definition is transformed through time, or how X’s interpretation-right is being competed under a certain relationship of power. That is to say, studying the ideology of a certain field could be considered as the study of such research’s origin as well as destination. Studying ideology per se could be seen as the foundation of any research.
Methodology RA12
Ewick, P. & Silbey, S. S. (1999). Common Knowledge and Ideological Critique: The Significance of Knowing that the 'Haves' Come out Ahead, Law and Society Review 33(4): 1025-1044.
RA13 Garrison, J. L. (1978), Public Assistance in Egypt: An Ideological Analysis , Middle East Journal, 32(3): 279-290.
RA14 Palermo, J. (1977). Reading Asante’s Myth of Afrocentricity: An Ideological Critique, Philosophy of Education, 1997: 100-111.
RA15 Apple, Michael W. (1985). Teaching and "Women's Work": A Comparative Historical and Ideological Analysis, Teachers College Record, 86(3): 455-473.
RA16
Ferreira, S. Morais, A. M. & Neves, I. P. (2011). Science Curricula Design: Analysis of Authors’ Ideological and Pedagogical Principles, International Studies in Sociology of Education, 21(2): 137-159.
RA17
Weltman, D. (2003). The Pragmatics of Peremptory Assertion: An Ideological Analysis of Word 'Just' in Local Politicians' Denials of Politics, Discourse Society,14:
349-373.
RA18
Hansen, J. T. (2006). Is the Best Practices Movement Consistent With the Values of the Counseling Profession? A Critical Analysis of Best Practices Ideology, Counseling and Values, 50: 165-160.
RA19
Downes, D. (2010). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollowness: A Narratological and Ideological Critique of J. K. Rowling's Magical System, International Research in Children’s Literature 3(2): 162–175.
RA20
Smith, D. E. (1975). An Analysis of Ideological Structures and how Women are Excluded: Considerations for Academic Women, Canadian Review of Sociology, 12(4): 353-369.
RA21 Weintraub, A. N. (2006). Dangdut Soul: Who are 'the People' in Indonesian Popular Music?, Asian Journal of Communication, 16(4):411-431.
RA22 Haslanger, S. (2007). "But Mom, Crop-Tops Are Cute!" Social Knowledge, Social Structure and Ideology Critique, Philosophical Issues, 17(1): 70-91.
RA23 Barker, P. J., Reynolds, W. & Ward, T. (1995). The Proper Focus of Nursing: A Critique of the Caring Ideology, International Journal of Nursing Studies, 32(4): 386-397.
RA24 Lu, X. (1990). An Ideological/Cultural Analysis of Political Slogans in Communist China. Discourse Society, 10:487-508.
RA25
DeFoster, R. (2010). American Gun Culture, School Shootings, and a “Frontier Mentality”: An Ideological Analysis of British Editorial Pages in the Decade After Columbine, Communication, Culture & Critique, 3(4): 466-484.
RA26
Rooney, E. (1984). From Republican Movement to Workers' Party: An Ideological Analysis, In C. Curtin, M. Kelly, & L. O'Dowd, Culture and Ideology in Ireland, pp. 79-98. Galway: Galway University Press.
RA27
Jones, B. G. (2008). The Global Political Economy of Social Crisis: Towards a Critique of the 'Failed State' Ideology. Review of International Political Economy, 15(2):
180–205.
RA28 Talshir, G. (2003). A Threefold Ideological Analysis of Die Grünen: From Ecologized Socialism to Political Liberalism?, Journal of Political Ideologies, 8(2):157-184.
RA29 Ewing, S. (1991). The Russian Social Insurance Movement, 1912-1914: An Ideological Analysis, Slavic Review, 50(4): 914-926.
RA30 Harvey, D. L. & Reed, M. H. (1996). The Culture of Poverty: An Ideological Analysis.
Sociological Perspectives, 39(4): 465-495.
RA31 Dilevko, J. (2001). An Ideological Analysis of Digital Reference Service Models.
Library Trends, 50(2): 218-244.
RA32
Johnston, K. (1983). A Discourse for All Seasons? An Ideological Analysis of the Schools Commission Reports, 1973 to 1981, The Australian Journal of Education, 27(1): 17-32.
RA33
Gillespie, J. (2002). Transplanted Company Law: An Ideological and Cultural Analysis of Market-Entry in Vietnam, International and Comparative Law Quarterly. 51(3):
641-672.
Research Objectives of Empirical Analysis
In the following four chapters of empirical analysis, two major research objectives are undertaken. Based on the inspiration of the concept, standardisation, offered by the Frankfurt School, the first research objective is to examine whether standard procedures (SWPs) for writing academic articles related to ideological analysis/critique exist. If SWPs do exist, it means that there is indeed a rule guiding analysts to write their IAC articles. It further implies that in spite of every effort IAC analysts have made to break through the cage of ideology, eventually they are still prisoners of (their own or social total) ideology.
Through such investigation, this thesis might be able to test if humans, even critics specialising in ideology, can be immune from the power of ideology, or to find out what limitation IAC critics have faced.
Of course, showing SWPs does not necessarily show that ideological critique is paradoxical. In fact, those induced commonalities (i.e., SWPs) between diverse IAC articles, from another perspective, also contribute to the second objective of this empirical analysis:
to establish a methodology specifically for research studies which adopt an angle of ideological analysis/critique for their analyses. By following such an IAC method, an effective critique on social issues is expectable. Analysts could easily analyse or criticise their research subjects ideologically, which might help to generate emancipation in diverse research fields. This methodology focuses more on how ideology works in X or how X reveals a certain ideology rather than directly claiming that X contains/is a (bad/wrong) ideology. This methodology of ideological critique is based on a rigorous theoretical foundation, which will be explained through discussion.